A hotter than average Me Made May resulted in me finding the holes in my wardrobe, and one of the bigger ones was neutral shirts to go with all my intensely patterned and bright colors of the rest of my wardrobe. Enter Simplicity 8342. I loved the vintage inspired tie in the front, and the cap sleeves sold me.
When I pulled open the instructions I saw one glaring issue, they wanted me to put elastic along the top of the back of the shirt. Seeing that this is mostly planned for warm weather, I didn't want the extra fabric, and from there was the start of a few alters I did. Because I was afraid of the cups cutting across my bust, my largest complaint with Ready to Wear (RTW) in this style, I cut the cups of the bodice one size larger than recommended, while leaving the rest the same. I feel like this not only gives me a bit more coverage, but also has put that line right beneath my bust as wanted.
I had to fiddle massively with those straps, not only to remove a SIGNIFICANT amount of length on them, but also to shift them in the back for better bra coverage. I also took in along the bust, but the pattern itself had a great curve to the side of it, with that being original, leaving this as a flattering vintage inspired shirt that will go great under my multitude of wild cardigans.
The joy of this? It's a scrap buster, something women in the plus range of the big 4 can rarely say. This one in particular was because I was able to use two different greys, if you look at the ties you can tell.
Will I make another? Most definitely, I even have scraps set aside. The future ones though will most likely be halters, or sans the cap sleeve, it's just too small to give any real coverage, and I think this shirt may look better with even skinnier straps.